as in extramarital
relating to or being a sexual encounter or relationship between a married person and someone other than their spouse
had an adulterous affair that nearly destroyed his marriage
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Recent Examples of adulterous
Nor did anyone blink when Shonda Rhimes set Scandal within the White House of a wishy-washy, adulterous GOP President who’d unwittingly stolen an election.
—
Judy Berman, TIME, 20 Feb. 2025
The aforementioned two seasons of Big Little Lies featured Kidman as Celeste Wright, a rich former lawyer and now Monterrey stay-at-home mom with an abusive, adulterous, and freshly dead husband that’s all based on a Liane Moriarty novel.
—Alex Abad-Santos, Vox, 13 Sep. 2024
Sorcerers, lovers, traitors, heroes saintly or adulterous, iconic women of power.
—Elizabeth Hand, Washington Post, 16 July 2024
The new version strips down the book’s narrative, concentrating on the plight of an adulterous airline pilot (Cage) who’s forced to land a plane after all the good Christians are called up to heaven.
—Emily Heller, Vulture, 12 July 2024
See All Example Sentences for adulterous
Judy Berman, TIME, 20 Feb. 2025
The aforementioned two seasons of Big Little Lies featured Kidman as Celeste Wright, a rich former lawyer and now Monterrey stay-at-home mom with an abusive, adulterous, and freshly dead husband that’s all based on a Liane Moriarty novel.
—Alex Abad-Santos, Vox, 13 Sep. 2024
Sorcerers, lovers, traitors, heroes saintly or adulterous, iconic women of power.
—Elizabeth Hand, Washington Post, 16 July 2024
The new version strips down the book’s narrative, concentrating on the plight of an adulterous airline pilot (Cage) who’s forced to land a plane after all the good Christians are called up to heaven.
—Emily Heller, Vulture, 12 July 2024
See All Example Sentences for adulterous
Recent Examples of Synonyms for adulterous
Adjective
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In 2022, a combination of fan sleuthing and online drama publicly revealed that Ned was having an extramarital affair with a Try Guys producer.—
CT Jones,
Rolling Stone,
18 Sep. 2025
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That was four months after Herchen’s first wife died, though the two were already engaged in an extramarital affair, according to court records.—
Robert Salonga,
Mercury News,
13 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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This is on top of the stress factors more common to this age group in general, regardless of generation, like navigating complicated family dynamics and academic and extracurricular pressures.—
Ashleigh N. DeLuca,
Parents,
26 Sep. 2025
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Once a child is in school, parents are also expected to provide resources for extracurricular activities, such as clubs, summer camps, sports, musical instruments and tutoring, to raise a well-rounded child, Falbo said.—
Adrianna Rodriguez,
USA Today,
26 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Adulterous.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/adulterous. Accessed 2 Oct. 2025.
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